Pat Monahan of Train: "I’m not a famous person, but I have famous music and I like that. It makes for a good life"

There’s no gold medal for guessing that Train frontman Pat Monahan has Irish roots.

“My family, according to my father, came from Tuam in Galway,” he says. “And my oldest daughter has been to Tuam because I told her she needed to go find some things out. And that was a few years ago, but I’ve never been."

He’s still made it to Dublin plenty, and will return with Train for a show in the serene Iveagh Gardens on July 6. He’s not one the usual pub crawls though; Monahan's more Napa Valley than Temple Bar.

“I don’t go to the pubs because I don’t drink beer, but I do drink wine. So if there’s a wine bar, I’ll try to find one when I’m there.”

Pat doesn’t just enjoy wine, he makes the stuff through his company Save Me, San Francisco Wine Co. (named after the band’s 2009 album), which bottles varieties named after the band's songs.

“We partnered with a guy named Dave Phinney who made a couple of very famous wines here in America and it’s doing quite well. It’s sourced from Napa, which is our most famous viticultural area here in the United States.

“I drink mostly Italian wines, so I can tell you more about Sangiovese than a domestic wine here in the States. But Cabernets and Merlots are very beautiful and they come out of Napa. There’s coastal wines like Pinot Noir that are beautiful too. Ours is a red blend, so it’s just got the best of all the worlds of the fruit. It’s a bigger wine but it’s not overwhelming because that’s annoying too.

“If you have a glass of wine that’s just too big you can’t have much of it. That’s why I think I like Italian wine so much. Italians have been making wine for so long that they understand that.”

Like a fine vintage, Train are going strong more than 30 years into their run, still playing shows and drawing in crowds. It wasn’t always this smooth: their first shot with Columbia Records in 1996 ended in rejection.

“When a record company tells you that you’re not good enough, basically every record company thinks that you’re not good enough,” he says, matter-of-factly.

“So we had to make our own album. Perseverance was the key to everything. But I think that that is attractive to a record company: seeing that they’re not going to stop you.”

Monahan's pragmatic about the way the industry has shifted, especially for new artists trying to cut through.

“Nowadays young people don’t need a record company," he says. "What they need is a TikTok account and something that can motivate people to pay more attention. I also think that eventually a young person has to understand that live performance is going to be a big key to being able to make a living in music.

“When I started, you could make a living by selling records. There were bands like Steely Dan and other bands that never even toured because they could make a living selling albums.

“But now you need to have a lot of streams to make a little money. So it’ll be interesting to see what kind of artists there are in the future. It doesn’t seem to have stopped anyone from pursuing music as a dream."

Does he feel like we would have made it if he was starting out now?

“Well, we would have approached it differently because it’s so visual. It’s a lot of acting and coming up with trends to inspire viral madness. I’m fortunate that I did not have to do that. I think my personality would have struggled.

“I’m more of a quiet behind the scenes artist. I’m not a famous person in the United States, or the world, but I have famous music and I like that. It makes for a good life.

“When I think about Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, he could probably walk down any street in the world and wouldn’t be recognised. And he is Pink Floyd.

“I know a lot of famous people and their lives are certainly not better. So I made some good choices. I get to go grocery shopping, take my kids everywhere. Some people recognise me and they’re just nice.”

He might keep a low profile, but Monahan still finds himself brushing shoulders with rock royalty, even if he missed his shot at meeting one of his heroes.

“Last time we were in London, we played the Royal Albert Hall. And that day I had to go do some radio interviews. And then I come back and my two guitar players tell me they have a picture with Jimmy Page in the lobby of our hotel. There I was at some radio station while they got to hang out with Jimmy Page for a half hour.”

Monahan isn’t fan so much as he is a disciple, with Train releasing a full album of Led Zeppelin covers, Train Does Led Zeppelin II, in 2016.

“It was four guys who did four separate things better than anyone else that I had ever seen do it,” the singer beams. “I love Prince, but Prince is Prince, he does everything.

“This was a band where you could choose to be one of them and still be the coolest guy in the band, because they were all incredible. At first I wanted to be John Bonham, so I started playing drums.

“And then I was the only one that could sing within the bands that I was in. So then my pursuit was Robert Plant, and it was always like that.”

That night at the Royal Albert Hall brought more encounters with legends.

“We performed ‘Hotel California’, but the only way we could do that was if we got the ok from Don Henley from the Eagles. He heard it and he said, ‘Now I want to see it’. So he saw it and he was like, ‘Cool, they can use it’. That was really cool to me because I’m such a big fan.

“I was working all day that day, so I was exhausted. They had to wake me up to go on stage because I fell asleep a half hour before we were supposed to go on. So I was in a dreamlike state. I woke up and didn’t have time to get all stressed out and nervous.”

Maybe a pre-gig nap is the new backstage ritual. Are there any other ways Monahan and co. try to keep things fresh after decades on the road?

“We play longer,” he shares. “We just make sure that people get what they came to see. And then we throw some other things in there that we enjoy doing.”

That includes sharing the stage with his bloodline.

“My 13-year-old son, Rock, he’s going to tour Europe and the UK with me or with us. And he’s an incredible singer. So he’ll sing some songs with us and maybe play some guitar.”

The set also features a few choice covers, including a take on Teddy Swims’ ‘Lose Control’.

“If I like your music but I know that you’re maybe a difficult person, we’ll stay away from it,” Monahan shares. “But the combination of 'Lose Control' being great and [Swims] being a great guy makes it easy.

“We do a little Hozier too. I’ve met Hozier and hung out with him for a little bit and I think he’s a great guy. We throw in a little ‘Too Sweet’ in one of our songs. I think that’s probably enough. But we’ll dabble in some other covers that might be interesting. I was just told to listen to the Saw Doctors, so I’m going to be listening to those guys.”

Between shows, Monahan’s been spending serious time in writing mode.

“I’ve been writing for 18 months, going to Nashville and following a certain type of music, but I think maybe I’ve been following the wrong road. I got a couple of really beautiful things out of it, but not as much as I had hoped.

“So I think I’m going to switch gears a little bit and go down the road that I know better. And we’ll have an album soon.

“Maybe we’ll have it written and ready by the time we’re leaving Europe and we can start recording in the autumn and have something for people to listen to. And then we can keep coming back to Ireland instead of waiting 15 years every time.”

• Train play King John's Castle, Limerick on July 5 and  Iveagh Gardens, Dublin on July 6. For more information, including tickets, click here.